Colorado Dreamin’
Is it possible that Boulder is more Orange County than Orange County?
The question occurred to me during my recent trip to the college town and jaunts through Rocky Mountain National Park.
Boulder is home to the University of Colorado and more than 30,000 students. It prides itself on being eclectic, health-conscious, outdoorsy and laid back.
Irvine is home to my alma mater, UC Irvine. It seems sleepy by comparison, without any strips of bars and stores targeting college students.
And anyone who drives daily on the San Diego (I-405) Freeway knows OC isn’t exactly laid back.
The Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites touts itself as “Boulder’s first zero-waste hotel,” with recycling and composting accessible and encouraged. Where I live in Costa Mesa, on-site recycling is not available.
There are more basic differences beyond Boulder. Steamboat Springs, a winter ski town and summer destination for river rafting and fishing, has an elevation of more than 6,700 feet. Irvine sits about 50 feet above sea level.
At an elevation of over 8,000 feet, the town of Grand Lake—where bears come into town looking for food nightly and an inch of snow in late June is normal—has a population of less than 500.
That’s more or less the population of my apartment complex.
Then there are the breweries. Colorado has several dozen while OC has only a few.
The Bruery in Placentia has gained national attention, and the Tustin Brewery is a favorite hangout for central county residents. But by the numbers, the county has about 60% of the population of Colorado, so it’s seriously got me considering that there’s a business opportunity here.
Colorado has borrowed a few things from here.
Boulder is home to locations of a couple of the county’s hip, relatively healthy quick-service restaurant chains, including Santa Ana-based Wahoo’s Fish Taco and Irvine-based Zpizza (see restaurant chains list page 10). OC-grown surfwear brands Volcom and Billabong USA have stores at downtown Boulder’s Peal Street Mall—a thousand miles from the Pacific Ocean.
OC could take a few cues of our own from Colorado.
—Emily Weisburg
